Steven Barlow, PhD, (Life Span Institute: KU UCEDD/LEND/IDDRC) Receives the Higuchi-KU Endowment Research Achievement Award

October 27, 2009

For the second year in a row, an LSI investigator has received a prestigious Higuchi-KU Endowment Research Achievement Award, which recognizes outstanding research accomplishments by faculty at Kansas Board of Regents institutions.

Steve Barlow, director of LSI's Communication Neurosciences Laboratories, received the Dolph Simons Award in Biomedical Sciences. A member of the speech-language-hearing faculty since 2000, Barlow is internationally recognized as a scholar in orofacial and laryngeal neurophysiology and biomedical aspects of speech sensorimotor processing across the life span. His work with at-risk premature newborns led to a new treatment to promote the development of a normal pattern of sucking behavior. A device he invented, the NTrainer system, is now available through KCBiomedix, Shawnee, Kan., to medical centers and hospitals throughout the country. 

Charles Greenwood, director of the Juniper Gardens Children's Project, received a Higuchi award in 2008.

The Higuchi awards program was established by Takeru Higuchi, a distinguished professor at KU from 1967 to 1983, and his late widow, Aya. Four individual awards are given annually. Each award comes with a $10,000 grant for ongoing research efforts. The award money can be used for research materials, summer salaries, fellowship matching funds, research assistants or other support related to research.

The 2009 Higuchi Award winners will be recognized at a ceremony and reception November 2 at the Adams Alumni Center on the KU campus.